Nasdaq Futures Lead US Premarket Rally As Iran Ceasefire Reports Ease Fears Ahead Of Big Tech Earnings: Why NVDA, ORCL, SPCX, XOM, OTLK Are In Focus

Despite the futures rebound, retail investors remain cautious. Stocktwits data showed retail sentiment is ‘bearish’ on SPY and QQQ.

• Oil prices plunged after reports that Washington and Tehran agreed to pause military strikes over the weekend. 
• Investors now turn their focus to a packed week featuring the Fed’s rate decision and GDP and PCE inflation data.
• Earnings from four Magnificent Seven companies (Apple, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft) will take center stage this week.

U.S. stock futures surged early Monday after reports that the United States and Iran agreed to pause military strikes over the weekend triggered a sharp selloff in crude oil prices. 

Wall Street gears up for one of the busiest weeks this year, with nearly one-third of S&P 500 companies scheduled to report earnings, including four Magnificent Seven companies: Apple Inc. (AAPL), Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN), Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) and Meta Platforms Inc. (META).

Investors will also be watching the Federal Reserve’s July policy decision, second-quarter GDP data and the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, the PCE price index later this week. 

As of 4:00 a.m. ET, Nasdaq futures soared 1.5%, Dow and S&P 500 futures rose 0.9%, and Russell 2000 futures were up 1.2%.

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment for the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), an exchange-traded fund that tracks the S&P 500 Index, remained ‘extremely bearish,’ while the Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ), which tracks the Nasdaq-100 Index, has moved to ‘bearish’ from ‘extremely bearish’ last week.

Trending Stocks To Watch

Nvidia (NVDA): Rose 1% in early premarket trade after reports revealed it is in talks to provide a $250 billion financing backstop for OpenAI’s 10-gigawatt Ohio data center project. NVDA also announced a $500 billion partnership with SK Group, a $1B investment in South Korea's Naver, and the rollout of its first U.S.-made GB300 chips from TSMC’s Arizona fab.

Oracle Corp. (ORCL): Shares saw a 3% relief rally in early premarket trade on Nvidia’s reported $250B OpenAI backstop. Since OpenAI is one of Oracle's largest cloud customers, traders viewed the development as a potential boost to Oracle’s long-term AI infrastructure business. 

Meanwhile, China's Moonshot AI is reportedly preparing to open-source its Kimi K3 model, renewing debate over whether Chinese AI developers are closing the gap with OpenAI and Anthropic. 

Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL): In focus after a top executive confirmed memory chip price hikes (up sixfold) will force higher pricing for the upcoming Pixel 11 series.

SpaceX (SPCX): Shares were muted early premarket trade ahead of its Aug. 4 earnings report. Morningstar warned that upcoming post-IPO lockup expirations (Aug 6) could create selling pressure while simultaneously boosting the stock's float-adjusted weight inside the QQQ ETF.

Outlook Therapeutics (OTLK): Shares rose 7% in early premarket trade following FDA approval of Lytenava for wet age-related macular degeneration (wet AMD), with analysts forecasting up to 290% upside.

Oil stocks (USO, BATL, TPET, XOM, CVX, OXY) remained in focus as crude oil prices fell over 6% following the U.S.-Iran military pause. 

Other tickers trending on Stocktwits at the time of writing included Rigetti Computing (RGTI), Venture Global (VG) and Capricor Therapeutics (CAPR).

Other Catalysts To Watch

On the economic front, investors will be watching for the release of durable goods orders and the Dallas Fed manufacturing survey.

On the earnings front, Dyne Therapeutics (DYNE), Applied Digital (APLD), and Navitas Semiconductor (NVTS) are among those reporting today.

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